INTERVIEW
"When there is a natural or cultural disaster - and there has been one regularly since Homo sapiens - we have to change culture every time," says Boris Cyrulnik. Neuropsychiatrist, ethnologist and psychoanalyst, he was the guest of the Big evening newspaper, Friday on Europe 1. Asked about the post-coronavirus, and the consequences that such a health crisis could have on our society, it has says convinced that our whole system will evolve.
Comparison with the black plague
"At the start of a trauma, we are always a bit dumbfounded, dazed," says the neuropsychiatrist. "We have a hard time predicting, we have too much information to regulate at the same time, and we are always a little confused before starting resistance against this virus". This is, moreover, the term that Boris Cyrulnik uses to evoke the world's response to this crisis. According to him, we are not at war, but we organize "resistance". And with resistance, he says, will come culture change.
"Before the plague of 1348, serfs existed, but the plague caused so many deaths that it was then necessary to woo the men and the peasants who, from then on, were paid. It became a job when before it was serfdom ", explains Boris Cyrulnik, using the example of the black plague which killed 25 million people in Europe. "When I came into the world, before the Second World War, there was no social security, no pension system," he said, referring to an "inevitable" cultural change after each crisis.
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"All of this will prove environmentalists right"
Following the coronavirus pandemic, the change could be primarily ecological, according to Boris Cyrulnik. As the virus continues to spread around the world, with many populations currently living in confined spaces and as economies slow down, we observe a reduction in air pollution, but also the reappearance of animals in places up to 'here overexploited by human activity. "In China, there is already a decrease from 8,000 to 10,000 admissions to cancer services because the pollution has greatly decreased," he added.
"All of this will prove environmentalists right," says the neuropsychiatrist. "People will want to restart the consumption sprint, but a large part of the population will oppose it and I think that we will slow down this culture, because it is absolutely necessary to slow down."
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